I guess the "Mrs. Watanabe" effect is coming to the West. Throughout late 2017 and early 2018,
there was a narrative about Japanese housewives flooding cryptocurrency exchanges:
"Cryptocurrencies are very narrowly held. A lot of them are Asian investors, particularly Japanese. It's very analogous to the mid 90s to early 2000s, when this mythical Mrs. Watanabe, who's sort of the cliché Japanese housewife that would manage the family's finances, would buy Australian currency because those interest rates were higher.
"Now, it seems like the 21st century Mrs. Watanabe is buying cryptocurrencies. Because a large percentage of cryptocurrency holders — particularly bitcoin — are Japanese, Chinese, or Korean, it means the rest of us are kind of playing on the margins and are beholden to what the Mrs. Watanabe's of the world want to do."
Anyway, good for them (and us). More traders coming to the market means more liquidity for the rest of us, and more efficient price discovery. I suppose this narrative helps to combat
the attitude that Bitcoin is totally male-dominated, too.
I wonder how this turned out for them, considering the date of publication:
Roughly 30 moms sent Britt money —$20 here, $100 there — to garner varying shares of the pot's ownership. When all was said and done, she'd raised $1,400 to invest in bitcoin and bitcoin cash.
